Why did Adam's voice have to sound so velvety and sincere? Luc wanted to accept his apology, all right, with a kiss. Or by ripping his stepbrother's clothes off to pay him back for undressing him.
"Where are Mum and Dad?" he asked, his voice coming out in an odd squeak.
"Shopping."
Knowing they were alone made things worse. The toast popped, almost making him jump. He grabbed one of the slices and began to chew on it.
"Don't you want butter or something?" Adam asked. "There's honey and peanut butter. There might even be some Marmite or Nutella somewhere."
"I don't think my stomach could take anything with actual taste right now," Luc said, grimacing as the dry toast stuck to the back of his throat. "Not even Marmite."
"I'm surprised your stomach can ever take Marmite," Adam said. "Revolting stuff."
"You just have no taste."
"No,you'rethe one with no taste. Or at least, no taste buds if you can stand that crap."
They both laughed. It felt so good to be sharing a light conversation with Adam. For half a second, Luc actually dared to hope that they might be starting to put the past behind them. But even if they were, it didn't change the fact that he still kept getting turned on by his stepbrother. He had no clue what to do about it, except to carry around a bucket of ice cold water to chuck over himself every time his thoughts became inappropriate.
They both fell silent. Adam went back to writing on his pad and Luc crunched his toast, eating it slowly in case it made him want to puke again.
"I'm sorry, too," he said, once he'd finished the first slice. "I shouldn't have suggested that teaching wasn't good enough for you." Although it was what he believed; Adam was definitely wasting his talent.
Adam shrugged.
"What are you working on?"
"Ideas for toddler classes, like you suggested."
Luc allowed himself to smile. "How's it going?"
"Good, I think. I'm basing lessons around fairy tales and kids' stories. The idea is to teach some simple steps and gestures, but to mostly encourage the kids to come up with movements for characters themselves. That way, they're exploring how their bodies move and how to put across character." He pursed his lips. "I'm not sure Dad will like it."
"He probably won’t," Luc said. "Dad needs to warm up to the concept of offering lessons to kids under six, but don't take that as a reflection on your ideas."
Adam flicked the notepad shut. "I'll run my ideas past him when he gets back. I'm going to go downstairs and dance for a bit."
Luc couldn't put into coherent thoughts how much he wanted to follow Adam down to the cellar and watch him dance. It would be a terrible idea. He had clear memories of seeing Adam dance and the strong, fluid beauty of his body. Just thinking about it made desire shiver up and down his spine deliciously. The cellar wasn't a big enough space to hide his want for Adam. It had been turned into a studio when they'd both been dancing. He had quit when the bullying had started at school, whereas Adam had toughed it out. When they were younger, Adam had always been the braver of the two of them. He'd faced things head-on, whereas Luc had run away.
"I should go do some work," he said.
Adam nodded and headed towards the cellar door, taking the notepad with him.
"Hey..." Luc began.
Adam paused and looked back at him.
"Mum and Dad have a lot of those permission slips in, so I thought I'd come to the studio and take some photos of the classes. Are there any that would be really good to see?"
"Dad takes most of the senior classes, so I'd start there. You've got the timetable?"
Luc nodded. "I want to get a good cross section of ages."
"You've got the timetable," Adam repeated. "Visit as many classes as you can and see what you end up with."
Luc had sort of hoped that Adam would invite him into his lessons. If he couldn't watch his brother dance, maybe it would be safe to watch him teach instead. Then again, Adam hadn't told himnotto go into his lessons.
"I'll do that," he said. "I'll come along tonight and try and get into every lesson for a few minutes."
